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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

The 4th Sunday in Easter: Mother's Day. Good Shepherd Sunday.

5/11

Debra brought beautiful flowers for Mother's Day. And her guitar.

On the other side of the door, Debra is already
there waiting for me to open up. She’s got a big vase with beautiful flowers for
Mother’s Day. And her guitar. We get to work setting up and Dion arrives and
then Deacon James and soon we’re gettingit together and Debra and I have time to practice the King of Love My
Shepherd is to the tune of O Waly,
Waly and as we’re practicing Joey arrives with Rachel and Dion helps her into
the sanctuary.

As a prelude for the service, I play O Good
Shepherd Feed my Sheep by the Jefferson Airplane. We sing Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us to
open the service. As it is every 4th Sunday of Easter, it is Good
Shepherd Sunday.

The first lesson is Acts 2: 42-47

Here we find the 4 marks of
community (42):

1.Devoted themselves to apostles’ teaching

2. Fellowship

3. Breaking of bread

4. Prayer

The fruit of this community is
that (44) They were together and held all things in common and gave
to any as they had need . When I ask what this sounds like, John R of course
respondsFrom each according to his ability, to each
according to his need . Someone asks Didn’t Marx say that? And
I respond that it started with 19th century French philosopher Louis
Blanc and then Marx. And now scholars feel that Blanc got it from Acts. So that classic formulation had its origins
in the Bible.

It’s been hard to talk about socialism in the US for a long
time, but Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty seems to be opening
up room for conversation. I remember my friend David when he and his garin
first reestablished the kibbutz at Gezer. I am finally living this, he said, From
each according to his ability, to each according to his need. And to
a great extent they were. When last I saw him, 32 years later at the same
kibbutz, that dream, as well as a lot of others, was long gone.

Last night there were over
150 communists here. There’s a thirst out there for something. Little would they suspect it
could go back to the Bible.

And the result of this sense
of community was that they lived with (46 ) glad and generous hearts… This
is also also part of a progression that leads to hope and what I’m now learning
is an equally essential spiritual gift, joy. What I have so often seen in
African-American worship. And More Light worship. The joy that sings forth from
a community of struggle committed to each other with mutual love and
accountability.

We proceed Psalm 23 by singing
Shepherd me, O God, beyond my wants, beyond my
fears, from death into life.

And we say the Psalm, both in the King James
version, you can’t really do it any other way, and in Spanish. And then Debra
and I do ourKing of Love My Shepherd is and it
feels very good.

One of
my clergy colleagues said that Psalm 23 is theMona Lisa of the psalter…It’s images, even in
atense and troubled time (David being
pursued?) is that ofabundance overscarcity…the overflowing cup, the anointing
with oil, the banquet in front of enemies…

The
truth of the world is that there is enough. It is a lie that there is not
enough. It is ultimately a question of distribution, not production.In urban ministry we have learned that it is
better to start with not a needs
assessment but a capacity assessment. When we start with needs, we get
overwhelmed. Depressed. Ready to give up. Believe that our salvationmust lie in someone else’s hands. Someone
else’s power. But when we begin with capacity, with what we already have, then
possibility, hope begins to emerge.

The
theologian Walter Brueggemann once said that Resistance begins with doxology. We begin with giving thanks for all we have to be thankful for. WhenI
felt most alone, that turned me around.

This
psalm, more than almost any other Bible passage, fills us with comfort. Helps
us feel protected. Cared for. Loved.

And the
end can be read ...my whole life long….orI will dwell in the house of theLordfor ever.

In 1 Peter
2: 19-25, we’re back to joy again. And also a
reflection on as Dr. King said it and Andre reminds us, the redemptive
power of unmerited suffering. While I don’t completely understand it, James Cone
makes the same point in Black Theology.

Sharon
Welch has said that cynicism is a prerogative of privilege. Only the privileged
liberal middle class can afford to be cynical, ultimatelya justification for abdicating oneself of
responsibility for the struggle. Of breaking solidarity, abandoning those who
are oppressed, excluded, marginalized.

Finally
we come to the Gospel, John 10: 1-10. We are now half- way to Ascension, half
way through Easter. Maybe we do this every year to show what the ministry of
the risen Christ is all about.

We
forget that at the time of Jesus, all theshepherd/shepherding language was already nostalgic. A romantic memory
of a long gone nomadic past, part of the mythology of King David. Most
everyone, even farmers, lived inside the gates of the city and only shepherds lived outside in the hills coming in only to trade.

Likewise,
very few of us have any real contact with sheep outside of street fair petting
zoos, scruffy as they are. Whenmy kids
were little, we tied to come up with urban images .They thought of Kenny the
porter of our apartment building who took it on himself to walk all the
building’s kids to the bus in the morningand see them safely home when they got back in the afternoon. That works
for me.

Who
else? Do you have your own images?

So it
is Mother’s Day. And those images work for our mothers. Or those who have been
mothers for us. Recognizing that not all mother relationships have been good
and that often, others have played that role.

As I
close, I’d like to share with you Bobby Mc Ferrin’s setting of the 23rd
Psalm, dedicated to his mother. Listen closely to the words:

The Lord is my Shepard, I have all I need,She makes me lie down in green meadows,Beside the still waters, She will lead.

She restores my soul, She rights my wrongs,She leads me in a path of good things,And fills my heart with songs.

Even though I walk, through a dark and dreary
land,There is nothing that can shake me,She has said She won't forsake me,I'm in her hand.

She sets a table before me, in the presence of
my foes,She anoints my head with oil,And my cup overflows.

Surely, surely goodness and kindness will
follow me,All the days of my life,And I will live in her house,Forever, forever and ever.

Glory be to our Mother, and Daughter,And to the Holy of Holies,As it was in the beginning, is now and ever
shall be,World, without end. Amen

We pray. Andre sings for us Blessed Assurance.
We take up our offering. Sing the doxology. Do a half way decent job of singing Go with us Lord... to the tune of the Tallis Canon, as a round.

The join hands, sing Amen. And clean up as we prepare for our own afternoons.

The Session approves a candidate for the porter position. And
people to serve on the pastoral evaluation committee.